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Web 2.0 and Tourism

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Web 2.0 and Tourism Web 2.0 and tourism Gergely Ráthonyi1, László Várallyai2 1 University of Debrecen, Centre for Agricultural and Applied Economic Sciences, Faculty of Applied Economics and Rural Development, Institute of Economic Analytical Methodology and Applied Informatics H-4032 Debrecen, Böszörményi út 138. e-mail: [email protected] 2 University of Debrecen, Centre for Agricultural and Applied Economic Sciences, Faculty of Applied Economics and Rural Development, Institute of Economic Analytical Methodology and Applied Informatics H-4032 Debrecen, Böszörményi út 138. e-mail: [email protected] Abstract. Development of ICTs and the expansion of the Internet have changed dramatically in the past few decades. Platform of tourism increasingly get to the Internet nowadays which is vitally important because tourism is an information-intense industry. The aim of this study is to show a brief summary of the significance of the Hungarian tourism with the help of important statistics. Due to an online survey this paper discusses the knowledge of the 18-25 age group students at our University in connection with Web 2.0 applications and also reveals which information sources are the most important during the travel decision-making process of the students. Future aim of the research is to examine the use and adoption of Web 2.0 by tourists and tourism related organisations in Hungary, because there are only a few researches dealing with Hungarian travellers’ and tourism related companies’ attitudes of using this new technology. Keywords: Hungarian tourism, ICTs, Internet, Web 2.0 1 Introduction Due to the industrial revolutions different inventions have appeared such as steam- engine (1769 Watt), steam-railway (1814 Stephenson), automobile (1885 Benz) and plane (1903 Wright brothers) which have contributed to the evolution of mass tourism. Undisputedly, tourism is one of the most dynamically and spectacularly developing economic sectors. Tourism has developed into one of the world’s most important industrial sectors, growing faster than the world’s gross domestic product for the last 30 years. In the past years – except the drop caused by recession – tourism turned into one of the propulsive industry in Hungary. Thereto it maintains, we make our guests desire __________________________________ Copyright ©by the paper’s authors. Copying permitted only for private and academic purposes. In: M. Salampasis, A. Matopoulos (eds.): Proceedings of the International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Sustainable Agri-production and Environment (HAICTA 2011), Skiathos, 8-11 September, 2011. 27 to come back to Hungary and make others to visit Hungary too, we – who live here – should provide for tourists appropriate level of services. Among the services one of the most important areas is the information service. Development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the expansion of the Internet penetration have changed dramatically in the past few decades. Platform of tourism increasingly get to the Internet nowadays. Internet has fundamentally altered the tourism-related information search and destination selection process. In consequence of these changes new technologies have been adopted into the tourism industry (Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Internet, web technology, mobile technology) and this trend is likely to continue into the future. In recent years social media websites and searching have become an increasingly dominant mode in travellers’ use of Internet. Because of the fact that tourism can be considered as one of the most profitable sectors of the Hungarian economy it is vitally important to make Hungary much more attractive with the help of developed ICTs. 2 Tourism of Hungary A decisive index of successfulness in tourism is the number of tourists’ arrivals. According to World Tourism Organization (UNWTO – specialized agency of United Nations) assessment the number of international arrivals increased from 534 million to 935 million arrivals during the period from 1995 to 2010. The incomes deriving from the commerce also increase as a result of the growing number of tourist arrivals, which is reflected best by the indicators of the GDP. According to World Travel and Tourism Councils’ prediction (WTTC) that travel and tourism sector’s contribution to the GDP will be 9.6% in 2011 and the contribution to the labour market will be 260 million people (8.4% of the whole employment) in the same year (WTTC, 2011). In Hungary this sector contribution to the GDP will 11% and the contribution to the labour market will 430 000 according to the WTTC’s prediction for 2011. Forecasts say this tendency will continue in the future, together with the number of tourists, the volume of their spending, the number of people employed by the tourism industry and also the role of tourism in the economy. Next table contains the most important statistics of Hungarian tourism in connection with the tourist’s arrivals and the financial balance of this sector (KSH, 2010). Table 1. Main Data on Hungarian Tourism Main Data on Hungarian Tourism 2009 2010 2010/2009 Arrivals and Guest Nights at Commercial Accommodation Domestic Arrivals (000s) 3923 3918 -0.5% Guest nights (000s) 9490 9672 +1.6% Avg length of stay (nights) 2.4 2.5 +2.1% 28 International Arrivals (000s) 3228 3386 +4.8% Guest nights (000s) 9220 9358 +1.4% Avg length of stay (nights) 2.9 2.8 -3.3% Balance of Tourism (January–September) Receipts (million EUR) 3.162 3.170 +0.3% Expenditure (million EUR) 2.060 1.738 -15.6% Balance (million EUR) 1.102 1.432 +29.9% Last time the satellite accounts of tourism (SAT) were made of 2007 in Hungary. According to them the education of typical sector in tourism correlated to that of national economy was 5.3%, their gross added value meant 5.9% contribution to the whole added value of national economy. (KSH, 2010) Tourism has been one of the most significantly developing sectors of economy since 2000-2001. In the globalizing world economy tourism is such a sector that can be competitive at international level as the facilities of our country suit to the products of tourism for example: • One of Hungary’s top tourist destinations is Lake Balaton, the largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, with a number of 1.2 million visitors in 2008. • The most visited region is Budapest, the Hungarian capital attracted 3.61 million visitors in 2008. • Hungary was the world’s 26th most visited country in 2007. The Hungarian spa culture is world-famous, with thermal baths of all sorts and over 50 spa hotels located in many towns. As we see tourism plays an important role in the country, so it is essential that developed ICTs (web 2.0) be used in tourism sector. Unfortunately these types of researches are not available in Hungary so it is hard to give an up-to-date example. Next I represent the Hungarian Internet penetration. Then we give examples some of the most popular social media and the concept of web 2.0 applications. 3 Usage of Internet Come to a travelling decision and organise a trip tourists have to collect a lot of information to be able to make their best decision. Information may derive from the Internet or other conventional media – such as prospects, brochures, newspapers, guidebooks, radio, television or travel agencies. According to several Hungarian (Gyarmatiné and Rényi, 2009; Grotte Judit, 2010 ) and other foreign (Buhalis and Jun, 2011; Lo et al., 2010; Xiang and Gretzel, 2010) researches results clearly support the primary importance of Internet in organising a trip. Most important travel-related searching sources are the online search engines, official websites of the destinations and travel blogs and forums. 29 Currently, there are 2 billion Internet users in the world which is three times greater than in 2000. In Europe (EU-27) Internet access is about 60 % of the whole population that is naturally meant to be an average (Internet World Stats, 2009). According to recent findings of the NRC Informationline Company, computer and Internet access at Hungarians’ home have produced significant growth within the last five years – 55% of the households has computer and 51% of the households is connected to the Internet in Hungary in 2010. In Hungary the Internet penetration is 62% in 2010 (Internet World Stats, 2010). The Internet is still considered a ‘youngish’ medium which is supported by the fact that while 84% of people between 15 and 24 years of age uses the Internet regularly, in the 25-34 age group the proportion is merely 67% as we see in the following figure (Figure 1.). In the over-50 age group the ratio is significantly lower than the average – the penetration is only 21% (NRC, 2010). Figure 1. Proportion of regularly internet users in different age groups 4 The Web 2.0 Tourism (travel and holiday) is one of the most costly items purchased regularly by households around the world, and it signifies a remarkable proportion of households’ annual budget. Internet has changed tourism consumer behaviour dramatically. Customers search travel-related information and make online purchases (online air- ticket bookings, online room reservations etc.) themselves instead of asking travel agencies to take on this process for them. The evolution of the Internet, as well as the constant evolution of society has lead to conceive new forms of communication, thus, new ways of media. Traditional forms of media are not anymore effective, because consumer has changed. The new 30 consumer is more sophisticated so he needs and requires more specialized media where he can take information from. This new type of media is called Social Media (Buhalis and Law, 2008; Shanker, 2008). In my opinion, Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) give an excellent brief definition for this term: social media as a group of Internet-based applications that build on the concept of Web 2.0, which allows the creation and exchange of user-created content (video clips, photos, texts etc.).
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